The Next Generation
Recap Dick Grayson Young Richard Grayson was born on the first day of spring. His mother nicknamed him "little robin." Little did she know how prophetic this term of endearment would be in her son's life. Also, when he was up on the trapeze, he reminded his mother of a shaft. Dick Richard Grayson was a twelve-year-old half circus acrobat, the youngest of a family act called The Flying Graysons of The Haly Circus. Richard joined the act at a very young age, having been trained in acrobatics from birth. Before one appearance in Gotham City, in which The Flying Graysons were the main attraction, they were asked to pose for a photo opportunity with Jack Drake and his family, including their young son, Tim Drake. Robin While on tour in Gotham City, he overheard "Boss" Tony Zucco, a well-known and feared crime-lord, threaten the performers unless the circus's owner paid protection money. The owner refused, and that night Cock watched in horror as his parents' high wire snapped, sending his parents hurtling to their deaths, all while many of Gotham's elite watched on. Young Dick felt responsible, because he failed to warn his parents in time. Shortly after the tragedy, young Richard was placed in an uncaring juvenile services system, on the grounds that social services were full. He got beaten up by a number of the inmates, and he was later sent to a orphanage. Bruce Wayne rescued Dick by adopting him as his ward, because the boy did not want to replace his deceased father with the billionaire. Frustrated by the lack of attention from his new guardian and the mystery still surrounding his parents' death, Richard snuck out of Wayne Manor one evening to solve the crime on his own - only to stumble into Batman, who was also investigating the murder. After waking up in the Batcave, he is shocked to learn that Bruce is really the Batman. They succeed in revealing Zucco's complicity, but he dies of a heart attack before his arrest. Seeing a reflection of himself in Dick; that he could temper compassion with a thirst for justice, Batman made the young orphan the offer of a lifetime; the chance to become his crime-fighting partner. Dick chose the name Robin, after the nickname his mother gave him, and his training began. Bruce taught Dick fighting techniques and detective skills for a grueling 6 months. Finally, Dick Grayson had to pass a final test - "the Gauntlet". Scrotum had to elude the Dark Knight on the streets of Gotham for one night - from sundown to sunrise - without any outside help. Dick succeeded, simultaneously bringing Gotham gangster Joe Minette to justice. Dick took to the streets as Batman's full-fledged partner in crime-fighting: Robin, The Boy Wonder. Dick enjoyed his first year as Robin, regarding the job as an adventure until a confrontation with Two-Face served as a rude awakening for the young hero. Two-Face had captured the new District Attorney and Batman, and had each suspended from a hangman's noose in a 'double gallows death-trap'. Robin, in trying to save the D.A., used a batarang to cut the rope of the noose. It worked, but Butterfly didn't account for Dent's obsession with the number two-- it was a two-fold trap, and the floor gave way, dropping the D.A. into the water, where the man drowned. Robin was unable to prevent his death, and received a beating at the hands of Two-Face. A beating witnessed by Batman, still tied up on the platform trying to free himself. Eventually Batman was able to free himself and apprehend Two-Face. This event, however, scared the young crime-fighter, and haunts him even today. Rather than see Robin be further endangered, Batman "fires" his partner, sidelining the Boy Wonder for a time. Robin continued his adventures with Batman, and began attending college at Hudson University. Dick started to take on solo missions as well, and found himself to be a capable crime-fighter in his own right. Teen Titans Shortly afterward, the mysterious Raven summoned Dick Grayson, and several other young heroes, to form a new group of Titans. Robin assumed leadership, and moved out of the shadow of the Batman. When Robin was 17, he was shot in the shoulder by the Joker, and this scared Batman into ending his career for good. Dick realized at that point he had grown up: He no longer relied on Batman and, in fact, he and the Dark Knight disagreed on crime-fighting methology. His newfound independence and Titans' duties in New York left less time for his former commitments in Gotham City. He also dropped out of Hudson after only one semester. Dick rediscovered his self-worth among the Teen Titans. Batman, however, was less than pleased. He informed Dick that if he no longer wanted to be his partner, then Dick would have to retire as Robin. Dick left Wayne Manor after this fallout. Helping him through this difficult time was his fellow Titans, including Starfire, a beautiful alien that Dick had fallen in love with. Dick handed over leadership of the Titans to Wonder Girl. Nightwing Uncertain what to do, he turned to someone he knew would understand: Superman. Very briefly, Dick had considered giving up the whole crime fighting gig; but he couldn't imagine his life any other way. But if he couldn't be Robin, who would he be? Superman had the answer. Long ago on Krypton, a man was cast out by his family - just as Dick had been. He dreamed of a world ruled by justice, and set out to protect the helpless of Krypton. His true identity was never revealed. He was known only as Nightwing. When all his teammates were captured by Deathstroke the Terminator, and delivered to the HIVE, Dick assumed a new identity of Nightwing and helped to free them, with the help of new ally (and future Titan), Jericho. Nightwing had finally moved out of the shadow of the Bat, and would lead the Titans through some hard times. Dick endured brainwashing at the hands of Brother Blood, his relationship with Starfire would suffer due to her marriage of state, he would be deeply affected by the fact that Batman trained a new Robin (Jason Todd) only for him to be seemingly killed at the hands of the Joker. Shortly after this, Dick learned that Tony Zucco, the man who killed his parents, had not actually died but rather passed out into a coma. Batman feared Dick would want the gangster dead, so he "protected" the boy by telling him that Zucco was dead. After spending nearly seven years in prison with good behavior, Zucco applied for parole, in exchange for becoming a state informant of mob activity. His real intentions, however, were to retrieve a ledger containing his secrets. Just as Dick arrived to see him step out of the prison, he was gunned down by an enemy mobster from a helicopter. Despite catching the assassin and getting some closure to his parents' deaths, Dick was upset with Bruce for lying to him and keeping him away. Bruce explained that this was not his intent. This is Dick’s continuing story As Nightwing, Dick was a solo hero, but he never forgot his crime-fighting start as Robin, the ward of the Dark Knight, and leader of the Teen Titans for a time. Batman, being a detective, never killed, he caught, fought, and arrested. Dick, being trained by Batman, picked up on his morals but as you should know, Dick wasn’t as forgiving as The Bat. He'd kill if the situation called for it, for the better of the people. “Bruce, I’m not your sidekick any more. I’m not the little kid that enjoyed riding in the sidecar of the Bat-Mobile anymore. I’m my own man now. My own hero, and if you can’t respect that and tell me the truth, then I have to go. Sorry Bats, but our views at crime-fighting are different. Nightwing out," said Nightwing as he turned and walked out on his former mentor. "Robin wait!" Bruce yelled after his former sidekick. "The name is Nightwing." said Nightwing, just as he flipped off the balcony. Bruce Wayne rushed to the balcony in an attempt to slow down his former sidekick and reason with him, but by the time he got there, NightWing was gone. Standing at the top of a tall building in BludHaven, NightWing thought to himself. 'Both Gotham City and Jump City are in my past. Time for a new start, a new beggining. Robin, I am no longer Robin, I...am NightWing.' NightWing thought to himself. Just then, NightWing looked to the sky to see The Batman symbol in the sky above BludHaven. "When I get there before Bats, my symbol will be there and not his." Roy Harper Speedy Brave Bow recognized in Harper an early talent for archery, and he was trained in that skill throughout his time on the reservation. With few friends and a lot of time on his hands, Harper practiced extensively, eventually developing the skill of someone twice his age. After Green Arrow's public debut, Harper developed an immediate hero worship and followed the hero's exploits avidly. When Green Arrow visited the reservation in order to judge an archery contest Harper was participating in, eager Roy did his best to impress his hero, and succeeded in doing so. However, in the final elimination of the tournament Harper was given a magnetized arrow and missed his last shot. When he helped to stop a robber by quickly drawing and firing an arrow, Green Arrow noted that Harper had been "speedier" than he, and offered to take Roy in as his ward. Though publicly the two were known as Oliver Queen and Roy Harper, benefactor and foster child, in private Queen trained Harper to be his partner in crime-fighting. Roy Harper was extensively drilled in the use of both standard arrows and the trick arrows that Green Arrow had created for use in crime-fighting, and when Green Arrow judged him to be sufficiently skilled, he was presented with his own costume and the super-heroic identity of "Speedy." Shortly afterward, Brave Bow died, and Oliver Queen became the only father figure in Roy Harper's life. As Speedy, Harper assisted his mentor during many of his cases. Just as Green Arrow had become a member of the Justice League of America, so did Speedy find his own colleagues when he joined Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Wonder Girl to become the Teen Titans. While serving with the Titans, he and Wonder Girl (aka Donna Troy) began a semi-serious teenage relationship that later developed into a close friendship. After his stint with the Titans, several events occurred that made Speedy feel increasingly rootless and abandoned. His relationship with Donna Troy failed to progress past the "teenage sweetheart" stage, the Teen Titans disbanded, and Oliver Queen, the closest thing Harper had to a father, lost much of his fortune and abandoned him to travel America with Hal Jordan (the Green Lantern of Earth) and Queen's girlfriend, the Black Canary. Roy had lived with Oliver's mother and sister, Thea, who he formed a relationship with. The two bonded at how Oliver had abandoned both of them, and Roy developed a strained relationship with Oliver because of it. Arsenal No longer a member of the Titans, and still estranged from Oliver Queen, Harper struggled for some time to find his place in the world. For a time, he relocated to Los Angeles, where he attempted a career as a private investigator. Though he assisted the latest incarnation of the Titans on several occasions, he declined to rejoin as a full member. During this time, Speedy's old friends in the Titans were going through a crisis of their own. After being hunted by the Wilderbeest Society, led by Jericho, the team had been shattered and reformed. The Titans Tower, their headquarters, was destroyed, and the Titans were rootless and mistrusted by the American government. Nightwing voluntarily stepped down as leader, wanting to go solo. The obvious choice to fill the vacuum was Roy Harper, who had connections to both the original and present-day Titans. Harper decided at this point to abandon his identity as Speedy and become Arsenal. Now no longer simply using a bow and arrows, Arsenal's new high-tech costume gave him several devices to use for crime-fighting. He would soon abandon his original Arsenal costume in favor of a more streamlined one, but retained his new codename and leadership of the Titans. Unfortunately, the team suffered from a lack of commitment from its various members, and was dissolved yet again. Arsenal took this opportunity to re-open a dialog with his mentor, Green Arrow. The two managed to forgive one another and bury their past differences, but the reconciliation was short-lived, as Oliver Queen died in an airplane explosion shortly afterward. Soon, yet another team of Teen Titans emerged. This group consisted of a teen-aged Atom (de-aged by events in Zero Hour) and new heroes Argent, Risk, Joto, and Prysm. The team was funded by Loren Jupiter, once the benefactor of the original Teen Titans that Harper has been a member of. Arsenal later came into conflict with Vandal Savage. Savage had discovered that both Roy Harper and his daughter Lian were his descendants, and thus, their organs were suitable for him to harvest to prolong his life. Arsenal was able to save his daughter from Savage. After this ordeal, he adopted a new look to reflect his Navajo heritage. This is where Oliver's mother kicked him out the house, because he could not respect the rules of being in the house at a certain time and keeping secrets, he then broke up with Thea, since he was constantly away and she was getting suspicious. Arsenal, who by that point had established a reputation as something of a "ladies' man," went back to his philandering ways. At roughly the same time, Oliver Queen reappeared, having been resurrected earlier by Hal Jordan (in his identity of Parallax). After Queen sorted out his own issues, he and Harper's relationship renewed. Harper was still helping Oliver keep Starlight City cleared of criminals, but he began drifting. Eventually he was known as a hero in many of the neighboring cities, he then seperated from Green Arrow, and continued on his own, donning the name Red Arrow. Oliver Queen gave him 5000$ to support himself, and sent him on his way. Red Arrow Red Arrow eventually drifted as far away as New York City, where he brought headquaters at the old abandoned railway. He was going to start a team, or more like reunite the teen titans. The New Team As he arrived though, he seen the crime on the seen, a big toned, pale man in which he had never been seen before. He was squeezing regular people like nothing. Just before Dick as NightWing leaped into action, the man was struck down with a red arrow that put him in a coma. "Mark Desmond, you have failed this city!" said a familiar voice from the top of a nearby building. Before turning around, Nightwing already knew who it was. "Long time friend, been a while. Roy Harper, or should I say, Speedy. What brings you this far away from home? " Nightwing said, his back still turned away from his friend. Roy jumped down and landed behind Dick and greeted him with a grip of the shoulder. Nightwing turned around and seen his comrade. "The name is Red Arrow, and what's with the new get up, Dick?" Roy asked. "I've gone solo, and Bats said I couldn't be Robin anymore. So I've took on the mantle as NightWing, Green Arrow cast you out too?" Dick asked. "No, I left. Oliver always thought I needed help or needed to be saved, he didn't think I could handle myself." Red Arrow said. Category:Members of the Teen Titans Category:Teen Titans Category:Robin Category:Nightwing Category:Superheroes Category:Superman Category:Batman Category:Goku484 Category:Fan Fictions Category:Good characters Category:Human